Dr. Casey you are talking about 2 different things: Personality and adaptability.
Personality does not change. Adaptability does. Adaptability is controlled by your personality. And over the period of years I have noticed that people who adapt better to changes around them are people who had a good childhood at "Home". Notice I said Home. If your home provided you a secured environment which built your self-worth then all is taken care of. These are people who have strong personalities. Anger/
introvertness/ being bullied are just a little fish to fry.
What life teaches you is experience. A 30 year old knows that if a car is high beaming from behind, it is better to let that person pass. Will I loose my self-worth if the person overtakes me? Will my self-worth increase if I let that person stay behind my back?
My self-worth will decrease the day I have to lie to my son or to my family. My self worth will decrease the day I do something that I ask my son to not do. My self worth will decrease the day I make my parents/family less proud of me. and that is personality. This has not changed since the day I was born and if it has not changed in these 30 years then there are less chances it will ever change.
But many of my traits have changed. My patience with people and their shortcomings is more than what it was a year back. I have become more careful of what I speak with people around me ( I have become less offensive now). I have learnt to learn from my mistakes. This is adaptability and it has changed and it will keep on changing and I hope it changes only for better.
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